Can I Finish?
Can I Finish? was the first stuido album recorded and released by the Indianapolis band Siphon. It was recorded and released in the summer of 1995 and featured fourteen original tracks by the band. It was recorded by Mike Osbourne in his garage-converted studio in Indianapolis. It was only released on cassette and sold approximately 500 copies. Background By the summer of 1995, Siphon had been playing shows on a regular basis for one year and had a lot of original material. They were very eager to get into the studio to record their debut album. Their fellow Homeskillet bandmates in Drywall had recently recorded a demo EP entitled Feege Against the Machine which heightened their desire to record. Some of the band members attended some of the Drywall recording sessions conducted by Mike Osbourne. The place was deemed to fit the needs of the band. Recording The band recorded over the course of multiple all-day sessions in Osbourne's garage-converted studio. The days were particularly hot and the studio had no means of cooling other than fans which had to be off while recording. Nearly all of the songs were recorded live for guitar, bass, and drums, with vocalist Eric Dedert singing along. There were very few overdubs as the band wanted to capture their raw, live sound without sounding too polished. Dedert later added his vocals with other band members adding backup vocals on several songs. Chris Goeres, college roomate of guitarist Matt Wittlief, also added backup vocals. Title and Packaging The band discussed proposals for the album title at length and did not have a name set even as recording began. The title Can I Finish? was ultimately selected. The title comes from Saturday Night Live's parody homage of independent Presidential candidate Ross Perot who repeats the phrase ad nauseum in SNL skits. The other titles which were discussed were cobbled together to form the title of the noise track at the end of the album. For the cover art to the album, the band members had a makeshift photo session in the garage of guitaris Chris Elmore. The photos were shot after the band members created various outfits made from several boxes of aluminum foil. The cover features a standing pose from the six band members each dressed up in foil. The cassette J-card featured the band members listed with pseudonymns and novel desriptions of the instruments played by each member. Production and Release The band had 1000 copies of the album produced on cassette tape. The production of the cassettes was done by Disk Makers. The album was also mastered by Big Dreams Studios (?) in Illinois as part of the package. Over the course of the next two years, Siphon sold approxmiately 500 copies of the album - usually at $5 per cassette. One CD copy was pressed and it is owned by Matt Wittlief. Track Listing The album contained fourteen songs and a bonus "noise track". #"Me Infect" (Elmore, Lucas) - 2:48 #"Out of the Blue" (M. Wittlief) - 3:12 #"Banana Boy" (Goeres, M. Wittlief) - 3:01 #"Tape" (Lucas) - 3:24 #"I'm (Gonna Marry) the Pink Ranger" (Cook) - 2:31 #"Levels" (Lucas, M. Wittlief) - 5:06 #"Collate" (Lucas) - 2:32 #"Cardboard" (Cook, Elmore, Lucas, M. Wittlief) - 2:16 #"Orphan Hatchery" (Elmore) - 3:12 #"When You Break Stuff People Know It's You" (Cook, Dedert, Elmore) - 3:04 #"Bitter Herbs" (M. Wittlief) - 2:33 #"Scandinavian Salesman" (Dedert, M. Wittlief) - 2:40 #"Dwotef" (Cook) - 2:21 #"Jack a Bat" (Dedert, Lucas) - 2:39 #"Anarchic Alien Abduction Victims Have Got Your Nose For No Apparent Reason ... Stencil" (Brenner, Cook, Dedert, Elmore, M. Wittlief, P. Wittlief) - 3:41 Personnel Member of Siphon: *Adam Brenner (credited as Mister Beefhead) - bass *Andy Cook (credited as Iedunno Wattasae) - guitar, backup vocals *Eric Dedert (credited as Eric Diesel) - vocals *Chris Elmore (credited as Poofter Ploopy) - guitar *Matt Wittlief (credited as Professor Qavaxx) - guitar, backup vocals *Phil Wittlief (credited as Woody Nids) - drums In addition to the credits above, the band use the following novel descriptions for the instruments played by the members: *Eric Diesel: Vocal Stylings, Tennis Racket, Con Fucoco, Cres. Al Forte, "Hey, Ya'll's," Rhythm Feedback, T.B.A. *Professor Qavaxx: First Chair Guitar, Secondary Lyric Interpretation, Noisy Feedback, Traps, Largemouth Bass *Poofter Ploopy: (4 String) Guitar, Bass, Violin, Harmonic Vocalist Singing to Happy Naive Little Boys and Girls... Ta-Da *Iedunno Wattasae: Third Chair Guitar, Backup Howling, Wanking Feedback, Drums, Bass, Soda Can, Butt *Woody Nids: Deleterious Drummer *Mister Beefhead: Bass Guitar, Regular Guitar, Sousaphone, Human Rumba Machine, Grunge, Scream, Pain Additional credits: *Mike Osbourne - recording engineer